In 1952 R&L changed its scope of production to the manufacturing and supply of laboratory metalware. After a period of growth the company was purchased by the existing management in 1964 and settled into a new purpose built factory.

During the years that followed R&L expanded its range of laboratory equipment which culminated in 1981 with the purchase of the metalware equipment business from Helix Ltd. From this point R&L was one of the largest manufacturers of this type of laboratory equipment in Europe.

We achieved ISO9002 accreditation for our laboratory range in 1992, at the first attempt, in the same year we purchased Midland Education, a sheet metal working company, this further increased our in-house capabilities.

In the summer of 1992, to keep an edge in the now internationally competitive market, we embarked on a four year investment programme which led to the purchase of a Nakamura Tome TW10MM CNC lathe, a Haas VFO CNC vertical machining centre in November '94 and a Citizen B12 CNC lathe in November '96.

With surplus CNC capacity available the sub-contract market was entered early in 1997. By the end of that year sub-contract supply was approved and added to our ISO9002 accreditation. Sales grew steadily during 1997 and 1998, which led to the appointment of a Sub-contract Sales Manager dedicated to develop new and existing customers and service their requirements.

In July 1999 we started a further investment programme in CNC Machine Tools which has led to 4 CNC machine tools being purchased in the past 4 years, culminating in a new Haas Vertical machining centre, being installed in April 2003.